Essay Comparing Frankenstein And Flowers For Algernon

The story of Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley is revered as one of the greatest novels to be formulated. It takes the point of view of a scientist named ‘Victor Frankenstein’ who is fuelled by an insatiable thirst of expanding his knowledge. His interests draw to that of being able to give things life where he takes the seat of god feeling that he has the power to do all he envisions, which in the end destroys him. Almost 150 years later the book Flowers for Algernon written by Daniel Keyes and published in 1959, manages to recreate the conflict between science and ethics and the implications of ungoverned scientific experimentation. The book observes a young man named Charlie who has a mental disorder, he continuously seeks to “become smart” and is attending a special school to achieve his goal. While visiting this school he is

To compare the two novels by genre they are equivalent in that they both take a dive into the waters of science fiction, a very intriguing genre. Although they sit at the far end of each other as Frankenstein focuses on a dark, gothic scene of science fiction which is largely based off the time it was written in. Whereas Flowers for Algernon is more purely Science fiction and the genre of horror is not prevalent. Frankenstein takes place in Geneva, Switzerland where Victor talks about his childhood and how his parents had met. Throughout the story he finds himself travelling all around Europe from Bavaria all the way north to the Arctic where he persists to hunt down the monster and inevitably where his journey ends. However, the opposite is shown in Flowers for Algernon as the setting is set and remains in Chicago, New York where the story carries out. As for the characters, the most noticeable similarities would be Victor Frankenstein and Dr Strauss and Professor Nemur from Flowers for